TAXONOMIC AND NON-TAXONOMIC CLUSTERING AND RECALL OF YOUNG CHILDREN IN A SORTING AND DELAYED RECALL TASK

Several studies have found recall and clustering performance of
young children to be greater with non-taxonomic (NT) than with
taxonomic (T) materials, while other studies have found the
reverse. The present experiment has tried to resolve this
discrepancy by introducing the variable of criterion vs single
sorting prior to recall. A comparison of Immediate and Delayed
recall between child-generated T and child-generated NT categories
under criterion (two consecutive identical sorts) and single
sorting conditions was used to assess the differences in these
T and NT grouping patterns as a basis for organizing recall.
Although there were no significant interactions with delay, when
subjects sorted only once, recall performance was greater with
T related materials. However, when subjects sorted to a stable
criterion of two consecutive identical sorts, recall performance
with NT related materials was greater than performance with T
related materials. These results suggest that under single
sorting conditions, the use of T categories may have resulted in
a better fit with the child's semantic memory structure than NT
groupings. However, with stable sorting, both T and NT grouping
patterns were equally consolidated into the memory structure,
making them both equally retrievable.